Advocating Green Urbanism as a Strategy to address Climate Change

Proponent: UP Planades
Amount: 456,415.00
Project Start Date: October 18, 2011
Project End Date: October 20, 2011
Grant Type: Advocacy Grants
Area: National
Grant Status: Past

Project Goals and Objectives

The International Conference on Green Urbanism 2011 was a 3-day event organized by the UP School of Urban and Regional Planning (UP SURP) in cooperation with the Kyushu University in Japan. It was held last 18-20 October 2011 at the Heritage Hotel in Manila, Philippines. The conference brought together international and local experts, businesses, academic institutions, LGUs, NGOs and government agencies to learn and share knowledge for sustainable development of urban centers.

Green Urbanism is a new paradigm for city planning that takes into consideration “new techologies that are more sustainable, more resource efficient and less environmentally extractive and damaging.” It is a conceptual model for zero-emision, zero fossil fuel energy use and zero-waste urban design. Green Urbanism is one promising strategy to achieve sustainable urban development and address the challenges of climate change and help lessen biodiversity loss.

Outputs and Outcomes

The conference with the theme, Planning Greener Cities, had over 600 attendees and gathered the commitment of the participants to adopt and practice the principles of green cities, green architecture, green infrastructure and enviromentally sustainable transport. The plenary talks were filled with case studies and practical applications of the principles of green urbanism. The infomaterial produced by the project, the Conference Proceedings on the 2011 International Conference on Green Urbanism contained useful information for planners in the public and private sector.

The succeeding course of action is to build on the gains of the conference by continuing to capitalize on the role of academic institutions to lead in research, policy advocacy and capacity-building programs in order to continue to mainstream the principles of green urbanism as a climate adaptation strategy in city planning.